From Elsewhere: Would you trust Ed Miliband to give the British people an in/out EU referendum?

December 8, 2013

I wouldn’t. I would also rate the chances that Ed Miliband wouldn’t try, post an election victory, to concoct a way to avoid a referendum on this issue as very high. Too many members of the upper echelons of the Labour party establishment are rabidly pro-EU. Also if Miliband did not get a working majority in the Commons and had to rely on the Lib Dems for support he would be working with a party that is even more enthusiastic about surrendering powers to the EU than Labour are.

“A ComRes poll commissioned by the eurosceptic ‘Get Britain Out’ campaign group has revealed that more than a fifth of voters (22 percent) would be less likely to vote for Labour at the next General Election, if their MPs or Lords succeeded in preventing the EU Referendum Bill from passing through the British Houses of Parliament.

The figures reveal that Ed Miliband’s party won’t be able to escape responsibility for the actions of individual Labour parliamentarians, even if Labour maintains its position of not actively voting as a party against the referendum. Labour’s election hopes in 2015 may well hinge on coming out in support of the referendum, as recent polling shows the party is just still just five points ahead of the Conservative Party.”

I would not trust a Milliband offer of a referendum on the EU, just as I don’t trust him or his party on things like the economy, education, immigration, security and a whole lot more besides.